Art News Archive 2025

August 2025

More than 150 US arts organisations pledge to resist political pressure

Silent Reading Party to take place at Bismarck library (ND)

Chris Doyle, Artist Who Brought the Inanimate to Life, Dies at 66

Exhibit Columbus (IN) removes controversial installation with statues of semi-nude architects

Top 10 artworks to see at the Minnesota State Fair Fine Art Exhibition

Lake St. Clair Metropark unveils Lake Sturgeon eco-friendly art installation (Macomb County, MI)

Final call to submit works for 2025 Ohio Veterans Art Exhibition

A.I. Showdown: Trump’s Free Market vs. Europe’s Rulebook

Cameras at Olbrich Gardens Highlight Art and Privacy Trade-Off (Madison, WI)

Fortresses Magazine Announces Launch & Open Call (Kansas City, MO)

Historians Alarmed by White House Plan to Oversee Smithsonian Exhibits

Last Chance! Submit Your Tiny Art to Chicago’s POST- by Aug. 15

Cleveland Arts Prize announces 2025 winners, honoring creative excellence, community impact

Protection from AI crawlers eludes visual artists despite available tools, study shows

Artist commissioned by Gichigamiin museum fired after controversial draft (Evanston, IL)

Thousands of Kansas City images from the tumultuous 1960s and ’70s find a new home

Midtown’s Detroit Artists Market reopens after severe flooding forced 6-month closure

‘Best kept secret in the art world’: Volland Foundation supports arts in rural Kansas

Indianapolis announces one-time cultural districts fund

How graffiti spurred a public art renaissance in Detroit: Will the next mayor do more?

Trump Administration’s DHS Wages War on Facts with Nativist Art Propaganda

Ohio Arts Council approves $23M in grants for artists, programs

Minnesota Cambodian temple to celebrate $1M ‘Great Gate’ that was years in the making

Iowa State University to retire 50-year-old art rental program

Senators Introduce “Art Market Integrity Act” to Combat Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing in $25 Billion Industry

Michigan artist’s giant Elon Musk head tours America’s national parks, saying ‘Make America Wait Again’

Trump’s Comments Undermine AI Action Plan, Threaten Copyright

Adrian Center for the Arts shaping next generation of creative leaders (Adrian, MI)

July 2025
Artist captures labor of bees in exhibition at Artlink in downtown Fort Wayne (IN)

Amy Sherald Cancels Her Smithsonian Show, Citing Censorship

Founders of Hibbing-based non-profit removed after settlement with Minnesota Attorney General

As legal questions arise, City Council postpones decision on mural (Grand Forks, ND)

New Congressional Bill Bans AI Companies From Training on Copyrighted Works or Personal Data Without Consent

Used Car Parts Become Moving Sculptures at Lansing Michigan’s Scrapfest

Lead Artist Sought for North Topeka (KS) Bridge Mural Project

Iowa teens blend art and activism in demolition derby at Muscatine County Fair

Cleveland artist turns historic Greyhound bus into museum

Artists Bring Life to Death at Midwest’s First Cemetery Art Residency (Minneapolis, MN)

Controversy remains over new art installation on the building of the North Dakota’s School for The Blind

Western Reserve Artist Blacksmith Association reignites passion for blacksmithing (Burton, OH)

Toledo School for the Arts launches fundraiser to replace stolen student sculpture

Is is finally time to tax places of worship? The I.R.S. says churches can endorse candidates from the pulpit

Slain Palestinian Boy Honored in Illinois Playground Monument 

Old Buck O’Neil Bridge metal to be used in Kansas City skatepark

Juan Diego Gaucin Exposes the Human Toll of a Broken Immigration System

Young Michigan artists showcase electrical safety in Midwest Energy & Communications contest

Lawrence artist hosts sticker sale fundraiser for immigrants needing legal help in Kansas

Artists Showcase New Works at Box Factory (St Joseph, MI) Amid AI Bill Threat to Creative Identity

City of Detroit’s Arts Alleys project brings vibrant artwork directly into neighborhoods

Denmark plans to thwart deepfakers by giving everyone copyright over their own features

Minneapolis artists plant paper, restore native prairie

June 2025

Denmark plans to thwart deepfakers by giving everyone copyright over their own features

Minneapolis artists plant paper, restore native prairie

Hastings (NE) asks residents to shape downtown artistic transformation

AI Titans Struggle to Use Rising Clout to Block State Regulation

New Cedar Rapids Museum of Art exhibition celebrates 50th anniversary of KCCK-FM, Cedar Rapids photographers

#midwestagendaartnews #museumexhibtion #jazzhistory #artexhibit #cedarrapidsmuseumart

Trump administration violated the law by withholding museum and library funding, government watchdog finds

‘Dr. Beetle’: Local biology teacher uses art to pique curiosity about bugs (Rock Island, IL)

Common Currents: How artists are connecting Cleveland (OH) and Buffalo (NY)

Verizon and Amazon cancel support for Juneteenth celebrations

Lubeznik Center for the Arts (IN) Receives Grant to Launch Michigan City’s First Artist-in Residence

Minnesota artist weaves human hair into wearable art, reviving an ancient craft

Know your rights at protests with ACLU of Iowa legal director

Kansas City’s West 18th Street Fashion Show celebrates 25th Anniversary with Mercurial Summer

Springfield Art Museum (MO) seeks artists for Route 66 sculpture project

Controversial artwork being demolished (Wellsville, OH)

Kansas City’s Parade of Hearts opens submissions for 2026 serie

Trump cuts leave few caretakers for massive federal art collection

More than a gallery, ART on Grand builds creative community in Wausau (WI)

Teen Art Group starts ‘A Conversation’ about inspiration in new show at University Galleries (Normal, IL)

Columbus Arts Festival (OH) returns for its 63rd year

From Sponsors to Solidarity: Pride Reclaims Its Power After Corporate Pullback

#midwestagendaartnews #lgbtqia #pridemonth #activism #protest #inclusion

Art in the Park returns June 7-8 (Columbia, MO)

Trump Is Planning a ‘Garden of American Heroes’ For the Country’s Anniversary. Sculpture Experts Say It’ll Never Happen

New Fair Draws Contemporary Artists from Across the Midwest (Fish Creek, WI)

Two exhibitions at Salina Art Center (KS) explore both the familiar and our limits of belief, perception & trust

#midwestagendaartnews #salina #artexhibition #paranormal #ufo #metaphysical #prairie #ecosystems
Jewish artists seek to process grief and healing in solidarity with Palestinians in art exhibition (South Minneapolis MN)


Cliché for days: This is what AI thinks gay bars in every state look like

1,500-plus murals created after George Floyd’s killing live on in Minneapolis

May 2025

Kansas City’s Charlotte Street Foundation Responds to NEA Grant Withdrawal

Embracing the Soft Power of Art
Across the globe, more and more cities and countries are investing in the arts

ArtWorks opens new creative campus, faces federal funding cuts (Cincinnati, OH)

‘You are safe’: Art installation is a wall of notes on encouragement from 988 hotline (Sioux Falls, SD)

Creative 360 call for art, Artfest 55 Festival (Midland, MI)

Orange Art Center to present first Emerging Artist Residency exhibition this summer (Pepper Pike, OH)

Minneapolis’ Art-A-Whirl, the country’s biggest artist open-studio event opens this weekend

Lincoln exhibition highlights art from Nebraska women.

Friday & Saturday, Spring Open Studios at Holsum Building (Kansas City, MO)

The conclave selects an American for Pope. A quick look at papal influences on Midwestern art projects and institutions

Draft Power Meets Public Art (Normal, IL)

Donald Trump Statue Unveiled in South Dakota “I knew it would be a controversial piece,” 

Northeast Ohio artists, artisans look to physical marketplaces in a digital world

Remembering Kent State Fifty-Five Years Later
Stark County (OH) student mural commemorates May 4 shootings

#midwestagendaartnews #kentstate #vietnam #shooting #antiwar #peacefulprotest #nationalguard

‘The First Homosexuals’ showcases 300 queer artworks amid ‘rise of homophobic politics’

Midwest Agenda Celebrates Four Years of Regional Art and Artists

Bob Ross Finally Gets the Museum Treatment (Muncie, IN)

Generations of LGBTQ+ Chicagoans are ‘Resisting Erasure’ through art

‘No More Turning Away’ documents homelessness in the Twin Cities

Kansas Arts Commission announces 2025 Tallgrass Artists-in-Residence

Trump Administration Seeks Artists for ‘Garden of Heroes’ Statues

NOTO Arts Center Welcomes TWO new Resident Artists (Topeka, KS)

Detroit Art Institutions Resist Political Challenges to Diversity

April 2025

Applications open for Artist in Residency program – North Dakota State Parks

EXPO Chicago — here’s what’s new, notable, and FAQs about the massive art fair

World’s largest artist sketchbook collection finds a home in Minot (ND)

Museum of Nebraska Art set to reopen after extensive renovations

Kansas City (KS) will get public art honoring Conley sisters, who saved Native American cemetery

Remembering Ohio’s Matthew Mohr: A Creative Force in Art and Education

Grant Wood Symposium to explore race and representation in Regionalist art (Iowa City, IA)

New round of mural grants available to enrich rural Kansas communities

Artists rip (Chicago, IL) Mayor Brandon Johnson’s arts commissioner, department ‘dysfunction’ in letter

Oshkosh Art Collective (WI) returns to the Gibson Saturday, will show works by over 35 artists

National Gallery of Art marking 250th anniversary of US with loans to ten museums across the country

Shepherds sell fiber arts, wool grown on sheep farm in Saunders County (NE)

Artist aims to carve out niche in Moorhead’s ‘rejuvenation’ with community art studio (MN)

Federal judge rules action against National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) unnecessary after it backed off bans on gender ideology

Orange City (IA) art exhibit to showcase Siouxland artists

Kathan Brown, Acclaimed Fine Art Printmaker, Dies at 89

Native American Icon Leonard Peltier Captured in Wet Plate Photography Technique, Image heads to Library of Congress

Sheldon to host series of events alongside ‘Exploding Native Inevitable’ (Lincoln, NE)

Painting found at Minnesota garage sale is not a real Van Gogh

Trump executive order on Smithsonian targets funding to programs with ‘improper ideology’

Eiteljorg to present large exhibition of contemporary bead art (Indianapolis, IN)

March 2025

The North Dakota ruling against Greenpeace is a threat to free speech (artists included)

A Kansas art museum shows why (smaller) institutions should make admission free

Appeals court rejects copyrights for AI-generated art lacking ‘human’ creator

John Paul Morabito Showcases “Madonna dei Femminellə” at Kent State University Museum (OH)

Beco Gallery revived as The Waiting Room in reimagined West Bottoms space (Kansas City, MO)

Lajuana Lampkins, Beloved Wicker Park Street Artist, Dies At 67 (Chicago, IL)

UMich student organizations host art fair to fundraise for families in Gaza

Ohio High School Censors Student’s Women’s History Mural Over “Inappropriate” Imagery

Waterloo’s African American museum opens to the public for the first time (IA)

Kansas City gets first look at 6 competing visions for the future of Nelson-Atkins art museum

Art exhibit shows the history and beauty of Ho-Chunk basketry, and why it’s in danger (Oshkosh, WI)

Ohio-based artist Michael Hogan was recently named a 2024 Hug Artist to Watch for his dazzling miniature worlds

Forget the divide! Arts project seeks urban-rural solidarity instead

Arts groups sue over Trump’s ‘gender ideology’ executive order

#midwestagendaartnews #artsgroup #nea #grenderideology #funding #artisticmerit

Christie’s first AI art auction sees hits… and plenty of misses

‘This is what Northside is about’ | Neighborhood rallies to bring back murals lost to vandalism (Cincinnati, OH)

‘Panafrica Across Chicago’ Citywide Art Project Lets Chicagoans Explore

Minnesota’s Region 2 Arts Council awards $89,500 in Arts Access Grants

Columbus’ Tyson Cultural Arts Center reviewing halting use of nude models after feedback

Nude art isn’t lewd. Columbus’ Knee-jerk decision to drop classes has consequences

Vermillion (SD) recognized as Best Small Town Art Scene in USA Today 10BEST lists

Omaha art center fires 5 in ‘restructuring’; workers say its retaliation for union talks

Des Moines Art Center begins removal of Greenwood Pond: Double Site

Emporia artist partners with Kansas Breastfeeding Coalition to display pieces statewide

Kansas City calling on artists to help transform Barney Allis Plaza

February 2025

South Bend Museum of Art (IN) hosts exhibit of local student art from national competition

A spring show featuring artists with disabilities seeks submissions (Sioux Falls, SD)

Artists protest new NEA restrictions

Report: Ohio’s creative sector has $32.9 billion annual impact

A resurgence of artists is brewing in Minneapolis’ Warehouse District

City initiative aims to keep storm drains clean using art (Fort Wayne, IN)

Art Institute of Chicago Lands a Staggering Haul of Neoclassical Masterpieces

Howell (MI) artist’s collage to support LGBTQ+ community draws national attention

Fargo (ND) arts and culture commission recaps 10 years of projects

Rutherford Chang, Who Turned Collections Into Art, Dies at 45

A Philadelphia-Kansas City wager. This one of oils and canvas

#midwestagendaartnews #superbowl #eduoardmanet #impressionist #modernism #philadelphiaM #NelsonAtkinsMuseum #thefolkestoneboat #thecroquetparty

Kansas Legislature needs a leader for historical mural project of 1st Kansas Colored Volunteer Infantry Regiment

Artists and art supply industry balk at Minnesota’s ban on cadmium paint

Inspired by U.P. wilderness? Porkies open 2025 artist residency (Ontonago, MI)

Detroit Artists Market suffers severe flooding damage, seeks temporary home

Peter Hujar’s Second Coming

Group exhibition features the work of 11 women artists from war-torn Ukraine at North Dakota Museum of Art (Grand Forks)

Art 64 seeks artists to compete for $20K prize (Wauwatosa, WI)

MSU Broad Museum exhibit focuses on food justice, agriculture in Michigan

Conservative Ohio think tank questions whether taxpayer dollars should fund art

January 2025

Art activists join together to advocate for funding at Kansas State Capitol

Madison Arts Commission (WI) call for art

Art Encounter receives $28,000 grant from NEA to expand in-school art program (Chicago, IL)

NE Ohio Is Buzzing with Ways to Celebrate Dr King’s Legacy

Thousands enjoy art on a frozen Minneapolis lake despite bone-chilling temperatures

South Bend Museum of Art (IN) seeking entries for ‘Biennial 33’ exhibition

\Art Museum Directors Increasingly Fear Censorship, But Few Have a Plan to Deal With It

‘One of the Most Impactful Art Losses Ever’: Insurers Start to Assess LA Wildfire Damage

#midwestagendaartnews #losangeles #wildfire #destruction #devestation #artcollection #artinsurance

Des Moines Art Center to Demolish Work and Pay Land Artist $900,000

Get a tiny, original artwork for only $5 from this unique vending machine Cincinnati, OH)

Michelle Obama portrait, John Singer Sargent’s ‘Madame X’ inspire new Mark Arts exhibit (Wichita, KS)

Augmented Reality Unveiling Party For Alton (IL) Mural Featuring Miles Davis

Painter Meg Lionel Murphy Finds Power in Feminine Giants (Door County, WI)

#midwestagendaartnews #artist #domesticviolence #meglionelmurphy

A Creative Life Exhibit Opens at VCSU Art Gallery (Valley City, ND)

Meta Ends Fact-Checking on Facebook, Instagram in Free-Speech Pitch

After part falls to floor, artwork at Kansas City’s airport terminal likely gone for good

Artlink’s ‘Midwest Regional’ showcases talent from Fort Wayne (IN), beyond

Beck Center for the Arts presents The Superhero Project (Lakewood, OH)

Incarcerated artists find creative outlet through annual U-M exhibition (Ann Arbor, MI)

Land artist Stan Herd returns to Dodge City (KS) to repaint his iconic mural

A tale of two art magazines: one celebrates human-delivered arts in Kansas City, one is dedicated to AI art

#midwestagendaartnews #humanartist #artificialintelligence #art #artist

3 Minneapolis art exhibitions to see during the sleepiest week of 2024

December 2024

This holiday season, remember those less fortunate amidst a rising oligarchy. How one artist overcomes the problem of anti-homeless furniture in public spaces

‘27 years of goodbyes’ thrust Kansas photographer to unexpected international acclaim

‘Niimiwin’ art exhibit celebrates the powwow tradition (Minneapolis, MN)

Youngstown (OH) Cultural Legacy show to honor recently lost artists

Museum In Wisconsin Houses A Jaw-Dropping Quilts Collection

Court ruling states UMB acted properly in managing Thomas Hart Benton Trust

Schools in central Iowa use art of origami to meet geometry standards for Iowa mathematics

Arctic winds create mysterious frozen sand sculptures along Lake Michigan beach

Nikki Giovanni was a walking revolution

Woman Transforms Historic African-American Doll Collection Into A Free Museum In Omaha (NE)

Ethereal, Glowing Curtains Drape Over Lake Michigan in Reuben Wu’s Light Paintings

Illinois artist builds ‘world’s tallest glass tree’ from recycled bottles

Tiff Massey’s ‘7 Mile + Livernois’ exhibition is a tribute to Black Detroit

Laetitia Hohenberg, Travis Pratt and others to be featured at latest Heidmann Art Salon (Kansas City, MO)

Toledo Museum of Art makes historic art acquisition using cryptocurrency

The lore of Leigh Bowery
^{Thirty years after his death, his legacy is about to live loud and proud at Tate Modern}

A Kansas artist’s love for his wife lives on as a Christmas tradition in Lindsborg

Tinyescape, Kansas City’s Westside Holiday Pop-up, Tiny Handmade Dioramas Inspired by Nature and More

Evanston Made (IL) clinches $1.2 million grant, city funding, to open arts center

OpenAI’s Sora Tool Leaked By Group Of Aggrieved Early Testers

Canton Museum of Art exhibit explores the avant-garde spirit of Cleveland’s Kokoon Klub

Art exhibit at Tennessee university museum draws controversy
^{Free speech and Christian faith at loggerheads again}

Historic Land Transfer to Osage Nation Facilitated by Arts Group (St Louis, MO)

Skylab Gallery to host final show before eviction (Columbus, OH)

An online collection of ‘outsider art’ enters the real world for the first time in Des Moines (IA)